I recently heard about a former mechanic in Maine who passed the one million mile mark in his 1990 Honda Accord. A car reaching half that distance would ordinarily be fit for the scrap yard. He put the longevity of the vehicle (which is still in working order) down to regular maintenance, using quality parts and safe driving.

He bought the car in 96 when it had 70,000 miles on it. Back then the world didn’t have smartphones. Hell, having a relative that knew a guy with a PC was a talking point for many of us.

These days cars can look after themselves to some degree with onboard computers letting us know when a tyre is losing pressure, when the engine needs a service or that you forgot to buckle up. For those of us who love to track data — like me — there’s another tool in the arsenal: aCar for Android.

aCar is an app for tracking maintenance, journeys, expenses, fill-ups and a bunch of other cool things. But is it worth it for the average motorist?

There are many racing games available on Android, and I’ve had hours of fun with my collection of them. But, sadly, none aim to be a realistic racing game; they’re all arcade games or kart racers. I’m an avid racing fan: I follow Formula 1, watch Top Gear, and play far too much Gran Turismo on my PlayStation. And while installing Race of Champions I knew Gran Turismo was going to be the game I benchmarked ROC against.

On the Play Store its developer talks about “precisely recreated tracks” and the game’s stunning details, with input from some influential people involved in the running of the real Race of Champions. The game had a lot to live ve up to – so needless to say I was looking forward to it.

If there is one thing you are absolutely not supposed to be doing while driving, it’s playing with your phone. Not only is this a dangerous (and in many places illegal) practice, but also highly inefficient; if you’re trying to text while driving, for example, it’s pretty much impossible to do either very well.

Fortunately, there are a number of applications for Android that help you get things done while driving, and even maximize your driving experience. There are some that actually make driving fun. Here are a few that caught my eye.(more…)